Threat to PRH remains very real despite hospitals deferment

News that the NHS body overseeing the reorganisation of hospital services has delayed the decision making process that threatens to close some services at the Princess Royal Hospital’s has been welcomed by Telford & Wrekin Council.

However it warns that the threat to the £28 million Women & Children’s Unit and A&E at the PRH remains very real.

The deferment at a meeting this afternoon follow the Council warning that it could seek legal action over the way the decision-making process has been run by the NHS.

The Council leader is now urging the NHS to ensure that transitional consultant support is immediately made available from neighbouring clinical networks to maintain services at both the Princess Royal and Royal Shrewsbury hospitals until the right sustainable long-term solution for both hospitals can be put in place.

Cllr Shaun Davies said: “The deferment by the Future Fit programme is exactly what we had been asking for because of the concerns we have around proper consideration of the issues at stake that would affect access to health care for all our residents.

“However I must be very clear. Don’t be fooled - this issue has not gone away.

“The threat to services at the PRH remains very much alive and very real.

WATCH: Shaun Davies outside the Future Fit Board meeting:

“We need to make sure that, however long the deferment is and we believe this will need at least a month, that this time is used properly to address the very significant concerns we have raised around the decision-making process.

“I also urge the NHS to make the necessary transitional support arrangements around Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals Trust to ensure that services such as A&E can continue in the interim at both hospitals.

“We continue our fight to keep services at the PRH because this is what this borough and many other people for whom the PRH is their hospital need.

“The proposals at the currently stand to close a £28m Womens & Children’s Unit just two years after it opened make no sense.